The Top Dog for Hungary is…

Kimi Raikkonen

A race short on overtaking was always going to throw up limited possibilities for one driver to stand out. As you can imagine, that makes our job a touch tricky.

For Lewis Hamilton, on pole and then the race victor, overtaking wasn’t really a possibility. While he drove a fantastic race, it doesn’t feel quite right to give him the Top Dog award.

For that, we have to look towards Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen, who managed to come from fifth on the grid to second by the chequered flag. While this ordinarily wouldn’t be enough to win him the Top Dog award by itself, given the track on which he was racing it was a sterling effort.

Photo: The Cahier Archive

He, much like the team for whom he drives, have been in and around the top spot of the podium all season. If the Hungaroring had only one overtaking spot, we’d put all the money in our pocket against all the money in yours that he would have passed Lewis Hamilton by the end.

He also had the opportunity to demonstrate the utter ruthlessness that makes him such a good driver, given that he was involved in one of, if not the only, moments of real tension at the sharp end. Emerging from the pits for the last time, he came very close to colliding with his team mate Romain Grosjean, running him wide as he did so. It’s that kind of single-minded determination that makes him such a valuable commodity in F1 and such a pleasure to watch drive.

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